Backblaze B2 egress pricing changes cloud storage economics
Backblaze B2 offers storage at $6.95 per TB with free egress up to three times the monthly storage amount. This pricing model provides a competitive alternative to Wasabi and Amazon S3 for video production teams managing large data transfers.
Backblaze B2 costs $6.95 per TB per month as of the May 2026 price update. This rate beats Wasabi, which moved to $7.99 per TB per month on July 1, 2026. For video production teams, the cost of storage lies in egress fees rather than capacity. Amazon S3 charges $0.09 per GB for the first 10 TB of data transfer out. Backblaze B2 includes free egress up to three times your average monthly storage. Any egress exceeding that 3x limit costs $0.01 per GB. B2 Overdrive carries a $15 per month premium for high-throughput workloads and includes unlimited free egress to any destination.
B2 remains cheaper.
If a production company stores 60 TB of archive and needs to retrieve 180 TB of data in a month, the Backblaze B2 bill stays at $360 because the retrieval stays within the 3x free allowance. Backblaze also made all standard B2 API calls free in May 2026. This change helps teams running automated ingest scripts or backup tools that issue high volumes of API requests. For teams serving video content through a CDN, the Bandwidth Alliance provides unlimited free egress to partners like Cloudflare, Fastly, bunny.net, and CacheFly. B2 Reserve provides a 35% discount for large deployments of 20 TB or more.
Comparing the players
| Feature | Backblaze B2 | Wasabi | Amazon S3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storage (per TB) | $6.95 | $7.99 | $23 (per 10TB) |
| Egress (after free tier) | $0.01/GB | Tied to usage | $0.09/GB |
| Minimum Retention | None | 90 days | Varies |
| API Fees | $0 | $0 | Variable |
Wasabi’s pricing includes a 1 TB monthly billable floor and a 90-day minimum retention period. If you delete a 1 TB file after 30 days, Wasabi still charges you for the full 90 days. Backblaze B2 has no minimum retention period. B2 is cheaper.
You know that storage costs are only one part of the migration math. Cloudflare R2 charges $0.015 per GB for storage and $0.00 for egress. For a workload with 10 TB stored and 10 TB served, S3 costs roughly $923, while R2 costs $150. Akave Cloud Standard sits at $5.99 per TB per month and uses a 3x free egress model. Akave includes Proof-of-Data-Possession attestations to prove data integrity via a dedicated immutable storage ledger.
B2 has no minimum.
Production realities
B2 acts as an object storage layer, not a production tool. It lacks media preview, visual browsing, and content-level search. Most teams use B2 as a backend for LucidLink, Iconik, or Veeam. Shade consolidates mountable storage, AI-driven search, and review workflows into one environment.
Backblaze operates data centers in the US and EU. It has fewer regions than AWS or Google Cloud. This can lead to higher latency for teams in the Asia-Pacific region. B2 supports S3-compatible API access but lacks object-level ACLs, IAM roles, and website configuration. B2 is cheaper.
Can a cheaper storage tier justify a slower workflow?
Teams do not leave Backblaze because storage costs too much. They leave because cheap storage that nobody can search, edit from, or review within creates its own cost in time. For example, a documentary company with 60 TB of archive at $360 per month might spend hours using Cyberduck to find a single clip. Shade replaces this by offering AI-powered search and frame-accurate review. Teams use B2 as a storage backend for tools like LucidLink or Veeam.
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